Dream Sweet With Me Tonight
by Tarafina
Summary: Caroline's been having trouble sleeping; comfort is found when she doesn't even go looking for it.


**Title**: Cast Away Your Demons (Dream Sweet With Me Tonight)  
**Category**: The Vampire Diaries  
**Genre**: General/Romance  
**Ship**: Caroline/Stefan  
**Rating**: Teen  
**Word Count**: 1,012  
**Prompt**: Picture  
**Summary**: Caroline's been having trouble sleeping; comfort is found when she doesn't even go looking for it.

_**Cast Away Your Demons (Dream Sweet With Me Tonight)**_  
-1/1-

Caroline opened her eyes slowly, blinking and frowning as light tried to pierce through the fall of her hair. Waking up was not an option. She'd been struggling to get a good night's sleep for a week and now that she finally had she was waking up at the crack of dawn. _So _not happening!

Grumbling, she squeezed her eyes shut and covered her face with a hand, fingers tangled in her hair, trying to block out the sun. She sighed, leaning into the warmth that enveloped her back and meeting resistance as she did. She paused momentarily. Her eyes shot open, wider this time, as she carefully shifted. There was a _body_ behind her. One which had not been there when she'd fallen asleep!

Panic rose up into her throat as she went over a mental list of who could be there, only coming up with a few likely candidates. She frowned. Her social circle had shrunken dramatically in the last two years and that was just a tiny bit disappointing. Of course, the people she did have around her all knew her better than the larger social group she'd once had and, well, being a vampire kind of put a damper on new friendships. With the appetite for blood, going to battle with a mysterious new evil doer every week, and the obvious fact that most people who got too close to their group eventually wound up dead, vampirism wasn't exactly friendship bait. Really, she was probably doing her old friends a service by not hanging out with them as much.

Anyway, back on subject, she was fairly sure that the body behind her was a boy's, which narrowed the list to Matt, Damon or Stefan. She hadn't seen or heard from Klaus or Tyler in more than a year and, if it _was_ them and they thought they could just sneak in for a cuddle then Caroline was going to have to neuter some hybrids. There was very little chance it was Matt, given their history. And it probably wasn't Damon because, well, he only ever cuddled with Elena and, younger vampire or not, Caroline would skewer him and he knew it. Which really only left Stefan. Her body relaxed.

"You're thinking too loudly," he muttered against her hair, his breath rustling it.

Her lips quirked up. So it _was _Stefan. "And you didn't tell me you were a cuddler."

He let out a sleepy chuckle. "I'll send out a memo later."

Now that she was a little more awake, she realized that she was laying on one of his arms, using the upper half as a pillow, and a comfortable one at that. His free arm was lying over her side, she could feel the knuckles of his hand just under her elbows. She'd kicked the blanket off at some point, if she'd ever even crawled under it. She'd been so exhausted last night, all she remembered was head meeting pillow and delicious nothingness. In fact, she was pretty sure she was still wearing yesterday's clothes; since she could feel the sun warming her bare arms and legs she was pretty sure she was in fact still donning the cute, ruffled skirt and tank top ensemble she'd picked out.

"So, not that I'm complaining…" She nuzzled her cheek against his arm for proof, and smiled as he flexed in reply. "But what exactly are you doing playing big spoon to my little?"

Stefan hummed, still very obviously half asleep. "You woke me up…"

Her lips pursed. What? Was she sleep-walking now? That could prove embarrassing…

"Could hear you down the hall… Nightmares," he explained. He pressed his face closer and she felt his nose rubbing against her hair as he sighed.

"_Oh_." She didn't say much more than that because she really didn't want to talk about the last week's worth of nightmares that had been keeping her from getting any kind of rest. Last week's bad guy was just short of Jeeper's Creeper's proportions and she _could not_ get it out of her head. She'd relived it enough, she didn't think saying it out loud was going to help any. "Vampire hearing kinda sucks then, huh?" she tried joking.

"Has its downsides, sure…" He turned his hand down and pressed his palm against her stomach, drawing her even closer to him, her backside cradled by his hips. "You know, if you ever want to talk about it, Caroline…"

"I know," she murmured. "You're there if I need you."

"Always."

She smiled then, feeling lighter than she had in a while. "I don't want to talk about it," she told him, but covered his hand and squeezed. "But I do want a few more hours sleep and you're not a bad personal heater, so…?"

He chuckled lowly and kissed the back of her head. "I'm here as long as you want me."

Maybe if she was a little more awake, or not as afraid that she'd ruin their friendship, she might tell him she'd like him to become a permanent fixture in her bed. But she was already drifting off, her fingers absently tracing around his knuckles, leaning back against him. If she was a romantic, and she was, she might point out that the only good night's sleep she had was when he played White Knight to her Sleeping Beauty and crawled into her bed to soothe her. But again, sleep, and, well, he was her best friend. So she'd take what comfort she could get and what little blessing her nightmares had offered her, and sleep in the strong embrace that cradled her close.

When she woke, hours later, refreshed and rejuvenated, she found him still there. And, properly awake and feeling more like herself, she thanked him for the save and told him he was always welcome in her bed. If she winked after then it was just in her nature to flirt. And if he crawled into bed with her, long before any nightmares had a chance to disturb her, then she wasn't complaining.

[**End**.]


End file.
